Water, Words, and Warmth
by wordybee
Summary: Alternate ending to Asian Population Studies. Jeff goes to Annie's door.


**Title:** Water, Words, and Warmth  
**Author:** wordybee  
**Spoilers:** Asian Population Studies  
**Rating:** G  
**Warning:** None.  
**Word Count:** 1341  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Community

* * *

"Don't say anything until I've said what I've got to say. I've known you for almost two years now, and I've never taken you as seriously as I should have. You are the strangest, coolest, most genuine person I've ever met, and the thing that scares me about you is how good you make me wish I was."

Jeff is standing in her doorway and Annie can't quite wrap her head around it. Five minutes ago, she was crying her eyes out because, once again Annie Edison is rejected by the guy she likes, and now Jeff is standing there, breathless and soaking wet, and she's completely speechless because these things don't happen in her world.

She shakes her head to clear it, sniffling, and Jeff keeps looking at her expectantly. She fidgets in the doorway but doesn't move to let him in, and she can see a flash of something – Disappointment? Embarrassment? – cross his features before she clears her voice and asks,

"What are you saying?"

Jeff breathes in deep, exhales, and leans in closer to her. She looks him in the eye and, to her surprise, he looks right back.

"Earlier," he starts, then stops to gain his bearings, "Earlier, when you were breaking the laws of common decency by hunting me down in the men's room… You asked me if I wanted you. I couldn't give you an answer then, because I was confused and afraid. I'm still pretty guilty on both counts, but I just sprinted for about a mile and it's Colorado in January, so I can't even feel my face right now let alone complex emotions."

He shook his head, "That's not the point. The point is I want you, Annie. You and Rich made me so jealous that I wanted to punch him even more than I usually do, but even though him turning you down for a date made you cry I actually want to thank him for doing it because it made me realize that if he'd said yes I would have missed out on getting this a chance – at least for a while longer, and I probably would've chickened out again. But since there's this chance, I'm using to tell you that I want you."

She's absolutely at a loss for words. She stays that way for so long that Jeff's fearfully excited expression falls into a dejected one and he's starting to turn away when Annie reaches out to grab his arm. He really is very cold and even though his voice never faltered and his teeth never chattered, she can still feel his body shivering, humming with a constant vibration that makes her want to lean close to him and share warmth (but then again, there are times where she wants to do that even when Jeff isn't risking hypothermia).

Annie moves carefully and Jeff doesn't move at all. He just looks at her, eyes glimmering with something like hope (but not exactly) as she gets closer, closer, closer. She moves her hand to wrap around his neck and pull him forward so she can kiss him softly on the lips. When she moves away, she looks up at him.

"So your numb face didn't feel that, then?"

There's a flicker of a smile as Jeff relaxes.

"You might need to apply more pressure," he says. Annie grins and stands on tip-toe in order to kiss him more deeply. He moves one hand to her hip and the other to cup her face while she just sort of wraps herself around him. It's that desire to share warmth again, and the more Annie feels how cold and shivery Jeff is the more she wants to make him warm. When his hand moves up a little on her waist, it's her turn to shiver. Annie deliriously thinks, _if we're both cold, how can I help him?_ before logic gets in the way: they're both warm. Very, very warm. Annie can feel the heat from Jeff's body, can feel it in her own cheeks, can feel it as Jeff touches her and every touch makes her nerves burn pleasantly. It's hypnotizing and intoxicating, and Annie forgets for a while that she's in the hallway of her crappy apartment building in the really bad part of town as all she can concentrate on is _warm, warm, warm_. The spell is broken, however, when he pulls away, hands still in place but expression worried.

"Wait," he says, and Annie looks at him curiously. She doesn't know how this – this wonderful moment, with her hearing all the things she wants to hear, and Jeff holding her like this – could end badly but she suspects that it will. He doesn't speak for a while, apparently trying to find the words. In the end, he goes with, "I'm a bad guy."

Annie grins and shakes her head. "No you're not, Jeff."

"Yeah, you think that because you're Annie. You see me as someone who's just slightly misguided, but… Annie, I'm narcissistic, I'm manipulative, I'm too lazy to earn my own success, and I was just making out with someone almost half my age."

With a sigh, Annie pulls back. "Same story as usual, then?" she asks him. Anger and dismay floods over her and now she couldn't care less about Jeff Winger freezing to death or catching pneumonia. The flip-flopping bastard could walk right back through the winter rain and catch twice the pneumonia, as far as she was concerned.

She thinks she's hiding her anger well when she doesn't leap back into her apartment and slam the door on his face, but even she can hear the snappish quality to her voice when she says, "We forget this moment ever happened, you avoid making eye contact with me for a couple months, and we'll go for round two in late Spring?"

She takes a few steps back toward her apartment, where she could do some double time on feeling sorry for herself and crying her eyes out from not one, but _two_ guys she liked rejecting her for the same reason in the same night. Before she can make it all the way in side, where her box of Kleenex and her saddest music was set to shuffle on her iPod, Jeff reaches out and grabs her hand.

"I'm not forgetting anything," he says quickly. "I'm just telling you… it's going to take some time, Annie. This… Us… We're not going to work until I'm a better person. I want you to help me be that better person, because you're the only one who possibly can."

Annie was getting a bit of a rush from all the mood shifts. Or perhaps it's because Jeff Winger is holding her hand and telling her he wants them to be something – something in the future, not now, but he still wants her and he wants her to help him. Smiling, Annie nods. She laces her fingers between Jeff's and pulls him with her. As they near the threshold of Annie's apartment she can see the flicker of worry in Jeff's eyes. It makes her smile grow into a full-fledged grin and she knows that Jeff isn't as evil as he thinks he is. He's already on the right track; it's just a matter of Annie showing him that he's good, deep down. She can do that easily, because she's never really doubted that it was true.

"We won't do anything," she assures him. "I'm going to make a pot of coffee and see what I can do about those clothes. You're going to try and warm up before things start turning blue."

An exhale of relief – Annie suspects it's just as much for the _not going to do anything_ part of what she said as it is for the rest of it – and Jeff closes the door behind them.

"Oh thank god," he says. "I wasn't lying about going numb. I haven't been able to feel my toes for the last fifteen minutes and I've been getting worried."


End file.
